Social Media Big Wigs......

I attended an AIMIA (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) forum on ‘Social Media & User Generated Content’ during the week.

AIMIA did a great job at getting some highly credible speakers including; Francisco Cordero, General Manager, Australian and NZ at Bebo Inc, Michela Ledwidge, Managing Director, MOD Films, Dominique Hind, General Manager, Mark. And Andrew Cordwell, Director of Sales, Fox Interactive Media, myspace.com.

The discussion included existing social media, trends of where social media & user generated content could go and the benefit to organisations from a marketing perspective.

Many of the companies utilizing these facilities well and linking to successful marketing campaigns are the multimedia FMCG companies, although there are many opportunities for smaller business too if executed well.

I think one of the things that stood out for me though, was the word ‘community’.

More and more, being online and creating a sense of belonging when promoting our businesses and the products or services that we have on offer, is all about creating a community where people can hold two way conversations. Which is interesting, because, essentially, the NSW Club Industry is already a ‘community’. The meaning of this community, though, would be different depending on whom you speak to. There is the community of ‘managers’, the community of ‘suppliers’, the community of ‘employees’, the community of ‘directors’, the community of ‘clubs’ themselves. Never has there been a better time to pull these already built tangible & physical ‘communities’ within the NSW Club Industry online than through Clubsational. And what I find personally very exciting, is the not too distant future possibilities in technology to provide real value to these communities! But more about that later....

Another interesting discussion, was the recent AC Nielsen Social Media Research Study (which I am going to try to get my hands on a copy of, if I succeed in this mission, I will post it here later…). Apparently, this shows that 50% of Australians are currently participating in social networking in some capacity with an online ‘profile’. And what’s more important, it is not ALL about the 16 -18 and 18 – 21 year olds. In fact, it is shifting very quickly, the Director of Sales of myspace.com, Andrew Cordwell, noted that there has been a recent significant movement towards a growth in the 40 -55 age bracket in myspace.com, which was previously skewed towards the youth market.

Not surprisingly…..in fact myspace.com and facebook.com started filtering into Australia, in the first instance, through the younger Australian generation travelling overseas and being able to communicate with emails, news streams, images, video etc back home to parents who, with a passion for their children and keeping abreast of what they were doing and their adventures, decided that technology was not THAT scary after all. Well, when you consider the rewards that were waiting at the end of the pilgrimage! Sort of like taking a nasty tasting spoon of medicine, you know it’s not going to taste nice, but you can’t wait to start feeling better – so you know its got to be done!

The one thing that all members of the panel agreed upon, was that online technology/software and applications was exploding, and over the next 10 years, say if defined in terms of how a 10 year old would be utilising technology as a 20 year old in the future, is difficult to predict (over and above the fact that it will all be 'mobile').....just look at what the last 10 years have delivered!